Jill Stefko 's Blog
Posted by Jill Stefko
Sandwiched between Hallowe’en and Christmas, the holiday and its meaning appear to be lost. When I was a child, we fashioned pilgrims out of clay and painted them for our school’s Thanksgiving display. On the holiday, the aroma of the turkey roasting filled the house, whetting our appetites. We gathered at the celebratory table, feasting on Mother’s turkey, stuffing, gravy, vegetables and dishes of spiced kumquats and crabapples and real cranberry relish and Nana’s, maternal grandmother’s, contributions of her specialties: oyster filling, a yam casserole and pies.
After the feast, men watched football or napped while women cleaned up and washed dishes. We children played. I still chuckle when I remember one of my teenaged cousins flitting about the playroom, garbed in sheets, pretending he was a Greek or Roman god in his version of “Gods and Goddesses”!
As a sophomore at Moravian College, I began to call the holiday “National Pig-Out Day” because it seemed to have lost its meaning and was devoted to eating. It was the same old, same old meal and after-dinner activities. I began to resent that women worked while men relaxed because I was a single mother who, despite a demanding profession, contributed food for the feast and helped with the clean-up. Some of the men worked 9 to 5 jobs and were married fathers, but contributed nothing to the dinner or clean-up.
Today, I decorate our home for Thanksgiving, make dinner, clean up and celebrate with my feline family. Relatives are too far away for us to share the holiday. Draco and Minx dine on their favorite treats, thinly sliced turkey breast, shrimp and water-packed tuna, then nap in their “nests.”
I’ll send friends emails with the following links about Thanksgiving:
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Posted by Jill Stefko
I first read about her when I attended Moravian College. I told Dad about her and he said she was one our ancestors. To this day, I’m not sure if this was a joke. I decided to write a book about her, which I’m still working on. When I was doing research, I read that her castle was in Nitrya, which has various spellings, in the Carpathian Mountains in the Austro/Hungarian Empire. Slovak was the common language in Slovakia that was ruled by the Magyars. My grandfather emigrated from what is now the Slovak Republic. His native town was Nitra in the Carpathians. He spoke both Slovak and Hungarian.
I read one too many purportedly “nonfiction” articles that proclaimed Bathory was a vampyre, which prompted me to write Who_and_What_was_Elizabeth_Bathory. She wasn’t. I had already written Vampyres: Legend, Cases and Theories and Vampyres in Rhode Island? Did Vampyres Live in New England or...? which are about the classic vampyre breed. She wasn’t a psychic or delusional vampyre as evidenced by Was_a_Landlady_a_Psychic_Vampyre and Thornton_Heath_Poltergeist_1938.
Bathory had a sense of grandiosity entitlement, hallmarks of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. She was vain and egocentric. She was a psychopath in that she felt no guilt, the disorder’s keynote. Psychopathy is now called Antisocial Personality Disorder. She derived pleasure from inflicting pain, the leading criterion for sadism. She is, at best, is an interesting study of inhuman pathology.
The Blood Countess was a serial killer because she and abettors tortured and slaughtered over 600 virgins. Bathory believed bathing in their blood was her personal fountain of youth.
Bathory was charged with and sentenced for practicing witchcraft. Her undoing was putting a curse on King Matthias of Hungary and others, which didn’t please the monarch.
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Posted by Jill Stefko
One of my first articles was Cats_Persecuted_as_Familiars which explains their association with Hallowe’en. The early church revered them, associating them with female saints. This ended when the church condemned them as witches’ familiars, demons and the devil himself. Popes decreed they were to be killed. I looked at Draco, my tom and Lynx and Minx, my queens and felt outraged at the cruelty their ancestors living in the Holy Roman Empire would have endured if sighted and caught.
I enjoyed writing about feline symbolism featuring domestic cats, Cat_Pagan_Symbol_of_the_Arcane and the big ones, Black_Panther_Pagan_Power_Symbol and Lynx_Pagan_Symbol_of_Secrets.
One of my passions is anpsi, psychic abilities of animals. Animals have exhibited ESP, telepathy and precognition, psychic knowledge of the future. I wrote about these in
The Psychic World of Cats Part I. I read and saw shows about a cat at a Rhode Island nursing home who was so accurate in predicting deaths that, when Oscar_Feline_Death_Omen
snuggled with a patient, the staff called families to tell them their loved one’s demise was imminent
Cats react to ghosts and have been seen as specters. This is explored in Black_Cat_Haunts_Capitol_Building, Ghost_Story, a case of three women and a cat seeing and reacting to a cat’s ghost, Killakee_House_Haunter_Feline and The Psychic World of Cats Part II.
Incredible_Winged_Cats really exist! A Google search for pictures has some of authentic winged felines and obvious caricatures of them.
As I write, leaves are in bright fall colors. Lynx is lying on the small rug in front of my electric stove with its faux flames blazing. Draco and Minx are happily ensconced on top of my equally faux leopard pelt Snuggie™, a sleeved blanket. Moggies, feline equivalent s of canine mongrels, in autumn's season….
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Posted by Jill Stefko
Some people might wonder how I wrote about the Scorpion in detail that’s unknown to the general public. In 1968, my ex was a submarine officer on a Mediterranean Cruise aboard the Runner, a diesel submarine also stationed in Norfolk. I was visiting my parents in Pennsylvania when the news that the Scorpion was “missing” broke. I looked at Dad who was a Naval officer and steel inspector during WW II, among the first to know when ships were sunk. I thought, “Grey Lady down.” We said nothing, but the expression on his face told me I was right.
Before I returned to Norfolk, I saw Dixon on Tom Snyder’s late night show. She said the men were alive and well, calling the Scorpion a “boat” because it was so “dear“ to her. The summer of 1968 was long and cruel for those who believed Dixon and hoped against hope the sub would return with her crew alive and well. Then, only selected personnel knew the Grey Lady was down - classified information.
After the Scorpion’s wreckage was found, Dixon was on a Virginia Beach talk show. She was so smug when she said she knew what happened to the submarine and spouted forth gibberish about a tube-like thing. I looked at her, thinking, “How dare you give people false hope, then after the Scorpion’s wreckage was officially found, tell people you knew what happened!”
It wasn’t until I was doing research for Was_Astrologer_Jeane_Dixon_Truly_a_Psychic that I thought of Dixon and her false prophecy about the Scorpion. A peculiar thing also happened. I was going through boxes and found a 1968 newspaper clipping about the Scorpion that I hadn’t seen since that fall. I’ve moved twelve times since….
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Posted by Jill Stefko
In 1998, I made a proposal to Mary Ann Dwyer, the executive director of the former Bethlehem Tourism Authority, BTA, to have October ghost tours in the historic area. Everyone told me we would lose money the first year. We didn’t.
Before the tours were given to the public, we had a preview night for members of the media, local dignitaries and BTA employees. My great-grandfather was a Pennsylvania Dutch PowWow doctor who healed people using its magickal art. I had studied PowWow and create Hex Signs, magickal symbols intended to either attract positive desires or to banish negativity. I learned a spell to banish people’s negativity. I had tried it on a diagnosed sociopath who married into the family and caused numerous continual problems on the previous Christmas. I visualized a brilliant shining blue pentacle, five pointed star within a circle, on her forehead. I silently repeated, “In the name of the positive forces of the Universe, I banish thy negativity.” To my surprise, she bopped herself on her nose with her son’s yoyo. I had forgotten about this until the 1999 tour’s preview night. One of the guests was vociferous in complaining about the tour so intensely that we had to have a second one. Two of my guides were intimidated by her and were very nervous. Before the tour, I told them what I was going to do, perform the banishing spell. To our surprise, her attitude did a complete 180 degree turn! She was even jovial! After the tour ended, my guides gave me surprised looks and said, “It worked!”
There’s more information about the ghost tours, Bethlehem hauntings and PowWow in these articles:
Paranormal_Realm/118354 Investigation - A “Haunting” in Historic Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Paranormal_Realm/117345 My First Paranormal Investigation and Ghost Tours
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Posted by Jill Stefko
In the late 1900s, we children looked forward to Hallowe’en. We carved Jack-O-Lanterns. We talked about costumes we would wear. One Hallowe’en, I was a Gypsy. Paying homage to my Gypsy ancestry, perhaps. There were school Hallowe’en parties. We’d parade about theneighborhood, then return to school where we had cider and decorated cupcakes. We eagerly anticipated Trick-or-Treat. The fun started several nights before Hallowe’en and ended that night. One of our schoolmates had a Hallowe’en party featuring walking through a cemetery at night. A couple of children screamed that they saw a ghost! We raced from the graveyard. To this day, I don’t know if the ghost was real.
While most of the customs remained the same, Trick-or-Treating changed. Some demented people hid razor blades in apples. As a result, fruit was no longer a treat. Parents were warned not to let their children to eat goodies before they were checked for evidence of tampering. One day was selected for Trick-or-Treat, usually during daylight hours. Parents were urged to accompany their children.
One year, I decided to give the Trick-or-Treaters a trick instead of a treat. I used a wooden pencil which I allowed the children to touch so they knew it was a regular pencil. I held it loosely between my thumb and forefinger and waved it up and down, so it looked like it was made of rubber. The children looked at me with puzzlement. I told them they said, “Trick or Treat,” so I showed them a trick. They knew they’d been had. Then, I gave them their treats.
These articles evoked memories of Hallowe’ens past.
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Posted by Jill Stefko
What happened in Salem intrigues me. I knew there was enough information for more than one article and was pleasantly surprised to write eight. I’m not sure when I first learned about Salem and its “witches.” I learned facts about James I, King of England. I wasn’t taught that he detested witches and was responsible for the North Berwick Witches' Persecution during the Burning Times, the height of witch hunts and executions.
When I learned about Salem’s “witches,” I wasn’t told a minister, the Rev. George Burroughs, was hanged because he was a convicted witch. I didn’t learn that Cotton Mather was rabid in discovering, persecuting and convicting suspected “witches.” All I was taught was that he was a Puritan minister. I didn’t know that his father, Increase Mather, the most respected minister in Massachusetts, wrote a paper about the dangers of accepting ghosts as evidence in witch trials. He denounced spectral visits and argued they might be the Devil’s ruse to fool people.
Respected publications state Giles Corey was pressed to death by stones because he was a convicted witch. This happened because he refused to acknowledge the court’s right to try him for practicing witchcraft.
I decided to write an article about Salem’s ghosts and did extensive research, referencing and cross referencing. I wrote about documented haunters in
Haunted_Witch_Capital_Salem_Massachusetts. When I wrote Salem_Massachusetts_Ghosts_Fact_or_Fiction, I was suspicious about the website’s veracity. It looked like a child wrote it and it was clear the hauntings were intended to scare people, a sign of made-up ghostly tales. I delved deeper into the site and saw the writers created the blurbs and invited people to email their contrived ghosts du jour.
These are the articles about Salem’s witch hysteria:
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Posted by Jill Stefko
Hallowe’en is the second most decorated holiday after Christmas. Orange Christmas lights adorn bushes, trees and porches. Figures and pictures of ghosts, witches, black cats, Jack-O Lanterns scarecrows and other Hallowe’en symbols are displayed. Bobbing for apples is a popular party game. Ghost stories both fact and fiction, are told by the fireside. Hot dogs, candied apples, apple cider, candy corn and marshmallow Peeps®, produced by Just Born candy factory in Bethlehem Pennsylvania, in the forms of ghosts, Jack-O-Lanterns and brown chocolate flavored cats are consumed.
Children go Trick or Treating for candy and other goodies. In the early part of the 1900s, Hallowe’en was mischief night. Children and teens would pull pranks including knocking on doors and quickly run away and wrap paper around any convenient object. Spooks were blamed for the mischievous activity. Hallowe’en customs are rooted in the Pagan traditions of Samhain, an ancient Fire or Solar Festival. It was the night that the veil between the living and the dead was the thinnest. The dead roamed the country side and the living begged for alms in the forms of soul cakes and fruit. Celts dressed in animal pelts so the dead wouldn’t recognize them. Jack-o-Lantern walked the earth, having been denied entrance to Heaven and Hell. People gave thanks for the third and final harvest’s bounty. Negativity and other things not wanted were banished in the flames of a fire. Pomegranate seeds were eaten. Celebrants savored the pungent sweetness of the fruit. Altars were covered with orange and black cloths, the colors of Hallowe’en. Autumn flowers, such as chrysanthemums and asters, pumpkins, Indian corn, gourds, acorns, cornucopias and oat, wheat and barley sheaves.
I researched both and enjoyed writing:
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Posted by Jill Stefko
Among my passions are cats, domestic and wild and the paranormal, especially Unknown Mysterious Animals, UMAs. I share my home with felines who think they’re the alpha animals. The list of articles that follows is a reflection of these interests.
Some people think Dartmoor’s Beast could be a feral black cat, phantom panther, bear, wolverine or dog. Exmore’s Beast was photographed. Montezuma had an onza in his zoo. People debate whether the Australian animal was a panther or a feral cat. Some believe American soldiers brought panthers with them during World War II as mascots. The Ohio cat killed livestock and terrorized people. The Queensland Tiger, according to some zoologists, might be not extinct, but could be a Thylacoleo, not one of the big cats, but a marsupial cat. While some think winged cats are cryptids, there are scientific explanations about why some domestic cats have wings.
The only true wildcat known to be living in the UK is the Scottish wildcat, an endangered species, the size of a domestic cat. Cait Sith is a supernatural legendary cat of Scotland and Ireland. Kellas cats were thought to be legendary until one was killed and others were found. They’re hybrids, felines with varying degrees of Scottish wildcat and domestic cat ancestry. While I did research for the article, I looked at pictures of these felines, then, looked at my cats and was amazed by the resemblance and photographed them for the article about the Irish wildcat.
The cats’ reacted differently. Devilish Draco’s a ham, loves his picture being taken. Laidback Lynx was nonchalant. Mischievous Minx thought it a game and ran away when I was ready to shoot.
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Posted by Jill Stefko
I first read about Wolf_Shadow -_Guardian_During_Blizzard in Angels on Earth magazine. Unfortunately, the magazine and other items were lost under unusual circumstances during a move. The story haunted me in a good way and I wished I had the magazine so I could write an article about it.
I had written Gerigio, Otherworldly Protector of St. John Bosco , Phantom Wolf or Guardian Animal and Wolf Influential Pagan Symbol and really wanted to write about the wolf who saved a man during a blizzard. Two of my passions are the paranormal and animals. The guardian wolf combines both. Imagine being out in a blizzard with inadequate clothing, nearly losing consciousness due to hypothermia and waking to find a large black canine covering your body to keep you warm.
I’m very much aware of the wolf’s bad reputation fueled by fairy tales and stories blown out of proportion! I thought of my brother’s stuffed elephant toy that played Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf. When I was a child, I loved wolves! My great aunt and uncle had a beautiful painting of a wolf in moonlight. I loved that picture!
As it turned out, I moved again on July 10th. By this time, I had acquired more books for my personal library containing paranormal, Shamanistic, animal and books. All of the books, except for two were packed. One was intentionally left out to be used as a reference for Suite 101 articles until I could get the rest of the books unpacked. The other, Animal Miracles, for some reason hadn’t been packed. On Friday, I got the computer hooked up, but couldn’t access the Internet. I had yet to hook up the TV and was getting bored, so I skimmed through this book. There it was! Guardian Wolf! Synchronicity?
Posted by Jill Stefko
I admit I get a case of the giggles when I watch a movie or TV show “based on a true story” or one that is fiction touted as reality such as the Amityville “haunting” and the Smurl case, both of which featured demons.
A friend of mine told me about The Exorcism of Emily Rose when it was first released. I was able to find the true case it was based on and wrote an article about it. It reminded me of another victim of pseudo-exorcists resulting in the death, Bernadette Hasler. How tragic! I thought of other articles I’ve written about with a demonic theme.
I believe that the paranormal phenomena called demonic possession exists due to the fact that there are documented cases witnessed by credible people. It’s the same with ghosts, poltergeists, cryptids and other things paranormal. While these can’t e proved by the scientific method and known laws of science, something is there. What it is, I have theories, but no hard answers.
I research, trying to find indisputable proof. Readers who are as curious as I am might enjoy reading the following articles:
- The Exorcism of Emily Rose/Anneliese Michel: Demonic Possession or Psychosis
- http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/paranormal_realm/118382/1
- Murder of the “Devil’s Bride:” Exorcism Gone Awry
- http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/paranormal_realm/118348
- Demonic Possession and Exorcism
- http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/paranormal_realm/117393
- An Exorcism in Earling Iowa, Part I
- http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/paranormal_realm/118244
- Earling Iowa Exorcism – Part II
- http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/paranormal_realm/118349
- The Documented Case The Exorcist was Based On
- http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/paranormal_realm/117398
- Exorcism and Father Walter H. Halloran
- http://paranormal.suite101.com/article.cfm/exorcism_and_father_walter_h_halloran
- Filming The Exorcist
- http://paranormal.suite101.com/article.cfm/filming_the_exorcist
- Multiple Personality Disorder and Demonic and Spirit Possession – Part I
- http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/paranormal_realm/118464
- Multiple Personality Disorder and Demonic and Spirit Possession – Part II
- http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/paranormal_realm/118474
- Amityville, Scamityville!
- http://ghosts-hauntings.suite101.com/article.cfm/amityville_scamityville
- Smurls, A "Haunting" in Pennsylvania
- http://ghosts-hauntings.suite101.com/article.cfm/a_haunting_in_pennsylvania
Would I watch the movie again? Yes, with giggles and serious thoughts….
Posted by Jill Stefko
Lynx was a grey tabby who lost her tail to human cruelty. I adopted her from our no-kill shelter. Warnings: “Not affectionate.” “Difficult.” “Semi-feral,” written on her papers. No, scared, but affectionate cat. In early September, she came into her own, no longer hissing or screeching at the other cats. She allowed them to be close to her and jumped into my lap for the first time.
I noticed she was sick, but she kept on rallying until September 25th. I took her to the veterinarian, where she died. The vet said even if I had brought her there sooner, there was no guarantee Lynx would have survived. What comforted me was that she didn’t have to endure tests and was outside before she died. She got outdoors three times and kept on trying, even on the day before she died. Her last dinner was her favorite, sautéed chicken.
When I returned home, Draco and Minx sensed something was wrong. They looked for her, Draco trying to go outside, only time this happened. The cats wouldn’t go on Lynx’s favorite perches until a couple of weeks ago. They wouldn’t eat the dry food the treats I gave Lynx, who left them untouched. I scattered them outside for feral cats. My cats still won’t go into parts of the living room or on windowsills where Lynx used to “hang out.”
I believe Draco and Minx grieve and wonder if they react to Lynx’s presence. Did I see her one night? I saw a grey tabby, lying outside the window. It looked like a reflection. I glanced away, then looked at the window again. No cat; not a trick of light.
Related articles:
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Posted by Jill Stefko
In early November 2007, I attended Rooms with a Boo, a weekend event featuring ghosts, at the Haunted Historic Hotel Bethlehem. I was looking forward to meeting Rick Fisher who pioneered the use of digital cameras and recorders, motion sensors and video cameras when conducting investigations of alleged hauntings and the founder of the Paranormal Society of Pennsylvania, PSP, http://www.paranormalpa.com/ Many ghost hunters and parapsychologists followed his lead and use electronic equipment. Rick is also an author and gives lectures, workshops and other educational programs about ghosts and other subjects related to the paranormal.
I knew of Rick by his reputation and website and was very favorably impressed. Now, I would meet him and his companion. I wasn’t disappointed. Rick gave an excellent presentation. Other guests and I enjoyed chit-chatting with them.
Presenters and overnight guests stayed at the hotel’s haunted ninth floor for the weekend. Room 932, where Rick and his wife stayed, has the most activity. Rick recorded EVP, Electronic Voice Phenomena, EVP, which he shared with us. Fascinating!
The organization also investigates other things of a paranormal nature: cryptids (animals whose existence can’t be proved scientifically like Bigfoot and Africa's Cryptid Bear, those believed to be extinct are sighted, like the Thylacine: Tasmanian Wolf-Tiger and those found outside natural habitats that can’t be explained by normal occurrences, like the Eerie Black Panther: Ohio Horror, UFOs and mysterious places. Currently, Rick is investigating and gathering information about the Lake Erie Presque Isle incident and the 1974 Carbondale, PA.
Pennsylvania Paranormal is one of the role models I used when I wrote How to Find Genuine Ghost Hunters, Paranormal Investigators: Who to Call? and How to Debunk Paranormal Hoaxes PSP is an excellent example of what ghost hunters should be.